Acknowledgement signaling processes for radio access networks

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of operating a user equipment in a radio access network. The method includes transmitting acknowledgement signaling based on a feedback configuration, the feedback configuration being selected from a set of configured acknowledgement configurations. The disclosure also pertains to related methods and devices.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/294,522 filed on Mar. 6, 2019, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/SE2017/051003, filed Oct. 11, 2017,the entireties of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure pertains to wireless or telecommunication communicationtechnology, in particular to radio access technology, e.g. for mobilecommunication.

BACKGROUND

Currently, radio telecommunication technology of 5^(th) Generation isbeing developed, with the goal to serve a large variety of use cases.Accordingly, the related systems have to be very flexible. Suchflexibility, however, can introduce undesirable signaling overhead.

One field that is of particular importance for many applications isrelated to acknowledgement signaling processes, which determine whethertransmitted data has been received correctly, or should beretransmitted. Examples of such processes include HARQ and ARQprocesses.

SUMMARY

It is an object of this disclosure to present approaches allowingefficient (e.g., incurring low signaling overhead) and flexibleacknowledgement signaling. The approaches are particularlyadvantageously implemented in a 5^(th) Generation (5G) telecommunicationnetwork or 5G radio access technology or network (RAT/RAN), inparticular according to 3GPP (3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project, astandardization organization). A suitable RAN may in particular be a RANaccording to NR, for example release 15 or later, or LTE Evolution.

Accordingly, there is disclosed a method of operating a user equipmentin a radio access network. The user equipment according to this approachmay be referred to as acknowledging user equipment. The method comprisestransmitting acknowledgement signaling based on a feedbackconfiguration, the feedback configuration being selected from a set ofconfigured acknowledgement configurations.

Moreover, a user equipment for a radio access network may be considered,which may be referred to as acknowledging user equipment. The userequipment is adapted for transmitting acknowledgement signaling based ona feedback configuration, the feedback configuration being selected froma set of configured acknowledgement configurations. The user equipmentmay comprise, and/or be adapted for utilizing, processing circuitryand/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitter and/or transceiverand/or receiver, for transmitting such signaling and/or receivingtransmission to which the acknowledgment signaling pertains,respectively. Alternatively, or additionally, the user equipment maycomprise a transmitting module and/or a receiving module for suchtransmitting and/or receiving.

Alternatively, or additionally, a method of operating a user equipmentin a radio access network may be considered, wherein the methodcomprises performing retransmission of data in an acknowledgementsignaling procedure, wherein retransmission is performed based on aretransmission configuration. The user equipment according to thisapproach may be referred to as retransmitting user equipment.

A user equipment for a radio access network may be considered, which maybe referred to as retransmitting user equipment. The user equipment isadapted for performing retransmission of data in an acknowledgementsignaling procedure, wherein retransmission is performed based on aretransmission configuration. The user equipment may comprise, and/or beadapted for utilizing, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, inparticular a transmitter and/or transceiver and/or receiver, forperforming retransmission and/or receiving the retransmissionconfiguration, respectively. Alternatively, or additionally, the userequipment may comprise a transmitting or retransmission module and/or areceiving module for such (re-) transmitting and/or receiving.

Performing retransmission may be considered a form of transmittingsignaling. The signaling may represent data already transmitted. In somecases, performing retransmission based on a retransmission configurationmay be considered to comprise transmitting of new data and/or performingno retransmission, e.g. as indicated by the configuration. Accordingly,a retransmitting user equipment may be adapted and/or configurable forretransmission, but does not necessarily and/or at all times have toperform retransmission. It should be noted that an acknowledgementsignaling procedure pertaining to the retransmission as indicated hereinmay pertain to different data, and/or different communication direction,and/or a different acknowledgement signaling procedure or process, thanthe acknowledgement signaling transmitted based on the feedbackconfiguration.

A user equipment (UE) may be considered that is adapted both asretransmitting UE and as feedback UE, and/or adapted to perform both oreither of the methods of operating a UE as described herein. Instead ofa user equipment, a corresponding radio node may be considered, e.g. ina backhaul or relay scenario, in which the radio node may for example bea corresponding network node. Thus, generally, the term user equipmentmay be replaced with the term radio node.

There may generally be considered a method of operating a radio node ina radio access network. The method comprises configuring a userequipment with one or more acknowledgement configurations of a set ofacknowledgement configurations and/or with a retransmissionconfiguration.

Also, a radio node for a radio access network is described. The radionode is adapted for configuring a user equipment with one or moreacknowledgement configurations of a set of acknowledgementconfigurations and/or with a retransmission configuration. The radionode may comprise, and/or be adapted for utilizing, processing circuitryand/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitter and/or transceiverand/or receiver, for configuring, and/or for receiving data signalingbased on which the retransmission configuration may be configured,and/or for receiving acknowledgement signaling (which may be based on aconfiguration of the set), respectively. Alternatively, or additionally,the user equipment may comprise a corresponding configuring moduleand/or a receiving module.

The radio node may be implemented as a network node, in particular abase station like a gNB or eNB. However, implementations as UE may beconsidered, in particular in the context of sidelink communication. Theradio node may configure the UE with all configurations of the set.Alternatively, or additionally, the UE may determine at least oneconfiguration based on another configuration, e.g. by modifying it.

Acknowledgement signaling transmitted based on the feedbackconfiguration may be uplink signaling, data signaling to which theacknowledgement signaling pertains may be downlink signaling. However,variants in which both may be sidelink signaling (with differentcommunication directions) are envisioned. A retransmission configurationmay be configured with signaling in downlink, e.g. in response toreceived uplink signaling, e.g. data signaling or control signaling. Insome cases, a retransmission configuration may be configured withsidelink signaling, e.g. in response to received sidelink signaling (inthe other direction).

A set of acknowledgement configuration may comprise more than oneconfiguration, in particular two or more, 3 or more or 4 or moreconfigurations. The feedback configuration may be one theacknowledgement configurations. The set may explicitly or implicitlycomprise a plurality of configurations. For example, a secondconfiguration may be implicitly comprised based on a first configurationif the first configuration is subject to one or more changes ordeviations when selected as feedback configuration, and/or if the secondconfiguration is derivable from the first configuration, e.g.unambiguously and/or based on predefined and/or configured and/orconfigurable rules.

Acknowledgement signaling may generally represent and/or comprise and/orcontain acknowledgement information, which may be structured based onthe feedback configuration.

Acknowledgement information may represent and/or comprise one or morebits, in particular a pattern of bits. The structure of acknowledgementinformation may indicate the order, and/or meaning, and/or mapping,and/or pattern of bits (or subpatterns of bits) of the information. Anacknowledgment configuration, in particular the feedback configuration,may indicate the size of, and/or arrangement and/or mapping of bits of,acknowledgement information carried by the acknowledgement signaling theconfiguration pertains to. The structure or mapping may in particularindicate one or more data block structures, e.g. code blocks and/or codeblock groups and/or transport blocks the acknowledgement informationpertains to, and/or which bits or subpattern of bits are associated towhich data block structure. In some cases, the mapping may pertain toone or more acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. processes withdifferent identifiers, and/or one or more different data streams. Theconfiguration may indicate to which process/es and/or data stream/s theinformation pertains. Generally, the acknowledgement information maycomprise one or more subpatterns, each of which may pertain to a datablock structure, e.g. a code block or code block group or transportblock. A subpattern may be arranged to indicate acknowledgement ornon-acknowledgement, or another retransmission state like non-schedulingor non-reception, of the associated data block structure. It may beconsidered that a subpattern comprises one bit, or in some cases morethan one bit. It should be noted that acknowledgement information may besubjected to significant processing before being transmitted withacknowledgement signaling. Different configurations may indicatedifferent sizes and/or mapping and/or structures and/or pattern.

Selecting a feedback configuration may comprise changing and/or adaptingan acknowledgement configuration of the set of acknowledgementconfigurations.

Generally, an acknowledgement configuration of the set may be configuredor configurable, e.g. with control signaling, and/or be predefined. Theset may be based on differently configured and/or predefinedconfigurations.

It may in general be considered that the feedback configuration isselected based on received signaling, in particular at least onesignaling characteristic of received signaling and/or informationcarried by received signaling. The signaling characteristic may inparticular pertain to a timing and/or resource pool, e.g. a symbol ofreception and/or the arrangement of the symbol in a transmission timingstructure like a slot, and/or the CORESET in which it is received. Insome examples, e.g. alternatively, or additionally, the signalingcharacteristics may indicate whether the received signaling isslot-based signaling or non-slot based signaling (e.g., in a mini-slot).The received signaling may generally be control signaling, e.g. ascheduling assignment, which may be associated to a control channel,e.g. a PDCCH or PSCCH. The control signaling may indicate data signalingto be received by the UE, e.g. on a data channel like a PDSCH or PSSCH.A signaling characteristic may alternatively, or additionally, pertainto a transmission or signaling to which the acknowledgement informationpertains. The signaling characteristic may for example be thetransmission duration and/or bandwidth (in frequency space) and/ortransmission size and/or transport block size and/or number of codeblocks or code block groups, or similar. Generally, any characteristicbased on which two transmissions (actual, or scheduled) may bedistinguished may be suitable.

An acknowledgement configuration, in particular the feedbackconfiguration, may generally indicate the number of bits ofacknowledgement information represented by the acknowledgementsignaling, and/or the size of the acknowledgement information, whereinthe size might be represented by a number of bits and/or number ofmodulation symbols.

It may be considered that an acknowledgement configuration, inparticular the feedback configuration, may indicate a mapping of one ormore acknowledgment bit subpattern/s to one or more data blockstructures to which the acknowledgement bit subpatterns pertain, e.g. toone or more code block groups or one or more transport blocks, or acombination thereof. An acknowledgement bit pattern may representacknowledgement information, an acknowledgement bit subpattern mayrepresent a subpattern of the pattern.

The acknowledgment configurations of the set of acknowledgmentconfigurations may pertain to the same carrier and/or bandwidth part. Insome cases, the configurations may pertain to the same carrieraggregation, or a set of carriers or bandwidth parts, e.g. an active setor a configured set.

Generally, it may be considered that one or more acknowledgementconfiguration of the set indicate that acknowledgement information is tobe provided to indicate reception of a transport block, e.g. such thatit is indicated with a bit or a subpattern to be received correctly onlyif all code blocks of the transport block have been correctly received.One or more other configurations may indicate that bits or subpatternsare to be provided for one or more code block groups, and/or one or morecode blocks, which may be associated to a transport block. Based on theconfiguration selected as feedback configuration, different numbers ofbits would be included in the acknowledgement information.

One or more acknowledgement configurations of the set of acknowledgementconfigurations may configured with control signaling, for example higherlayer signaling like RRC signaling and/or MAC signaling. Theconfigurations may be semi-static, allowing limiting the signalingoverhead on lower level control signaling, e.g. DCI signaling.

A transmission format may generally indicate one or more data blockstructures or substructures for transmission or reception, and/or how adata block like a transport block (and/or a related structure) isdivided, e.g. into subblocks or subblock groups, like code block/sand/or code block group/s. A transmission format may in some casespertain to more than one data block, and/or may pertain to more than oneacknowledgement signaling process. It may be considered that atransmission format indicates size in bits and/or coding for the one ormore data block structures or substructures. A transmission format maypertain to signaling to be transmitted by a radio node, or to signalingto be received, and/or to acknowledgement signaling pertaining tosignaling to be received. For different communication directions, and/ordifferent carriers and/or bandwidth parts, and/or sets thereof, and/ordifferent configurations, in particular different configurations of theset of acknowledgement configurations, different transmissions formatsmay be utilized, e.g. defined and/or configured. In particular, atransmission format for transmission based on a retransmissionconfiguration may be different from a transmission format associated toan acknowledgement configuration like the feedback configuration.Transmission formats may be independently configured from each other,e.g. using different messages and/or different signaling, e.g. ondifferent layers of the protocol stack.

A retransmission configuration may generally indicate whether and/orwhich data blocks or subblocks or subblock groups are to beretransmitted, or may be replaced by new transmission. Thus, aretransmission configuration may be considered a form of acknowledgementsignaling. However, the retransmission configuration may in somevariants additionally indicate resources for transmission, and/orschedule the transmissions or retransmissions. The retransmissionconfiguration may be configured with one or more uplink grants. It maybe considered that a retransmission configuration indicates atransmission format for signaling by the user equipment performing datatransmission and/or the retransmission. A retransmission configurationmay indicate and/or comprise a bit pattern (e.g., a bitmap), which mayfor example indicate which data block structure/s of a transmissionformat may be used for new transmission and which for retransmission.

The retransmission configuration may be configured with controlsignaling, for example physical layer signaling and/or DCI signaling, inparticular an uplink grant.

There is also considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing circuitry to control and/or perform anyof the methods described herein.

Also, a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a programproduct as described herein may be considered.

An acknowledgement configuration may generally be a code block groupconfiguration, which may indicate a mapping of one or moreacknowledgement information subpatterns (e.g., one or more bits) to oneor more code block groups, each of which may comprise or consist of thesame or a different number of code blocks, in particular one or morecode blocks. Each subpattern may be mapped to one code block group. Insome variants, an acknowledgement configuration may indicate a mappingof one or more subpatterns to one or more transport blocks, each ofwhich may comprise and/or consist of one or more code block groups. Eachsubpattern may be mapped to one transport block. An acknowledgementconfiguration may pertain to a combination of code block group/s andtransport block/s, in particular regarding the structure or transmissionformat of corresponding acknowledgement information. Analogously, aretransmission configuration may be a code block group configurationand/or transport block configuration, pertaining to the structure and/ortransmission format of data signaling or control signaling, which mayundergo an acknowledgement signaling procedure on the receiver side. Anacknowledgement configuration may be considered to configure and/orformat feedback or acknowledgement information pertaining to code blockgroups or transport blocks or code blocks, whereas a retransmissionconfiguration may be considered to configure and/or format code blocksand/or code block groups and/or transport blocks.

A data block structure may correspond to a scheduled data block, e.g.for data signaling. The data blocks may be associated to separatelyscheduled transmissions, e.g. separate channels and/or instances and/orcarriers and/or component carriers and/or data streams, e.g. in thecontext of carrier aggregation and/or multiple-antenna transmissions,e.g. MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output). The data blocks and/orassociated data signaling may be for downlink, or in some cases forsidelink. The acknowledgement signaling may generally be uplinksignaling, but in some variants may be sidelink signaling. However,there may be considered cases in which data signaling is uplinksignaling, e.g. in the context of retransmission performed by a userequipment. A subpattern may represent the acknowledgement informationand/or feedback for the associated data block, e.g. with the size asindicated by an assignment indication. Different data blocks may beassociated to different transmission instances and/or differentacknowledgment signaling processes, e.g. HARQ processes. Anacknowledgement signaling procedure may comprise one or moreacknowledgement signaling processes, which may pertain to the samecommunication direction.

A data block structure may generally represent, and/or be associated to,a scheduled data block and/or corresponding signaling. The data blockmay be scheduled for reception, e.g. by control signaling, in particulara control information message, which may be a scheduling assignment. Insome cases, a scheduled data block may not be received, which may bereflected in the corresponding acknowledgement signaling. A number ofdata block structures, and/or the number of assignment indications, maybe considered to represent a number of transmissions of data scheduledto be received by the user equipment (or second radio node).

A data block structure may generally represent, and/or correspond to, adata block, which may generally be a block of data and/or bits. A datablock may for example be a transport block, code block, or code blockgroup. It may be considered that a data block structure represents adata block which may be intended to be subjected to an acknowledgementsignaling process. A data block may comprise one or more subblocks,which may be grouped into one or more subblock groups, e.g. code blockgroups. A data block may in particular be a transport block, which maycomprise one or more code blocks and/or one or more code block groups. Adata block structure may be considered to accordingly represent atransport block, code block or code block group. A subblock group like acode block group may comprise one or more subblocks, e.g. code blocks.It may be considered that a data block comprises one or more subblockgroups, which may have the same or different sizes (e.g., in number ofbits, e.g. systemic and/or coding bits). It may be considered that adata block comprises information bits or systemic bits (which may beconsidered to represent data to be transmitted) and/or coding bits, e.g.bits for error coding like error detection and/or error correctioncoding, and/or parity or CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) bits. A subblock(e.g., code block) and/or subblock group (e.g., code block group) mayanalogously comprise systemic and/or coding bits.

An acknowledgment signaling process may be a HARQ process, and/or beidentified by a process identifier, e.g. a HARQ process identifier orsubidentifier. Acknowledgement signaling and/or associatedacknowledgement information may be referred to as feedback. It should benoted that data blocks or structures to which subpatterns may pertainmay be intended to carry data (e.g., information and/or systemic and/orcoding bits). However, depending on transmission conditions, such datamay be received or not received (or not received correctly), which maybe indicated correspondingly in the feedback. In some cases, asubpattern of acknowledgement signaling may comprise padding bits, e.g.if the acknowledgement information for a data block requires fewer bitsthan indicated as size of the subpattern. Such may for example happen ifthe size is indicated by a unit size larger than required for thefeedback.

Acknowledgment information may generally indicate at least ACK or NACK,e.g. pertaining to an acknowledgment signaling process, or an element ofa data block structure like a data block, subblock group or subblock.Generally, to an acknowledgment signaling process there may beassociated one specific subpattern and/or a data block structure, forwhich acknowledgment information may be provided.

An acknowledgment signaling process may determine correct or incorrectreception, and/or corresponding acknowledgement information, of a datablock like a transport block, and/or substructures thereof, based oncoding bits associated to the data block, and/or based on coding bitsassociated to one or more data block and/or subblocks and/or subblockgroup/s. Acknowledgement information (determined by an acknowledgementsignaling process) may pertain to the data block as a whole, and/or toone or more subblocks or subblock groups. A code block may be consideredan example of a subblock, whereas a code block group may be consideredan example of a subblock group. Accordingly, the associated subpatternmay comprise one or more bits indicating reception status or feedback ofthe data block, and/or one or more bits indicating reception status orfeedback of one or more subblocks or subblock groups. Each subpattern orbit of the subpattern may be associated and/or mapped to a specific datablock or subblock or subblock group. In some variants, correct receptionfor a data block may be indicated if all subblocks or subblock groupsare correctly identified. In such a case, the subpattern may representacknowledgement information for the data block as a whole, reducingoverhead in comparison to provide acknowledgement information for thesubblocks or subblock groups. The smallest structure (e.g.subblock/subblock group/data block) the subpattern providesacknowledgement information for and/or is associated to may beconsidered its (highest) resolution. In some variants, a subpattern mayprovide acknowledgment information regarding several elements of a datablock structure and/or at different resolution, e.g. to allow morespecific error detection. For example, even if a subpattern indicatesacknowledgment signaling pertaining to a data block as a whole, in somevariants higher resolution (e.g., subblock or subblock group resolution)may be provided by the subpattern. A subpattern may generally compriseone or more bits indicating ACK/NACK for a data block, and/or one ormore bits for indicating ACK/NACK for a subblock or subblock group, orfor more than one subblock or subblock group.

A subblock and/or subblock group may comprise information bits(representing the data to be transmitted, e.g. user data and/ordownlink/sidelink data or uplink data). It may be considered that a datablock and/or subblock and/or subblock group also comprises error one ormore error detection bits, which may pertain to, and/or be determinedbased on, the information bits (for a subblock group, the errordetection bit/s may be determined based on the information bits and/orerror detection bits and/or error correction bits of the subblock/s ofthe subblock group). A data block or substructure like subblock orsubblock group may comprise error correction bits, which may inparticular be determined based on the information bits and errordetection bits of the block or substructure, e.g. utilizing an errorcorrection coding scheme, e.g. LDPC or polar coding. Generally, theerror correction coding of a data block structure (and/or associatedbits) may cover and/or pertain to information bits and error detectionbits of the structure. A subblock group may represent a combination ofone or more code blocks, respectively the corresponding bits. A datablock may represent a code block or code block group, or a combinationof more than one code block groups. A transport block may be split up incode blocks and/or code block groups, for example based on the bit sizeof the information bits of a higher layer data structure provided forerror coding and/or size requirements or preferences for error coding,in particular error correction coding. Such a higher layer datastructure is sometimes also referred to as transport block, which inthis context represents information bits without the error coding bitsdescribed herein, although higher layer error handling information maybe included, e.g. for an internet protocol like TCP. However, such errorhandling information represents information bits in the context of thisdisclosure, as the acknowledgement signaling procedures described treatit accordingly.

In some variants, a subblock like a code block may comprise errorcorrection bits, which may be determined based on the information bit/sand/or error detection bit/s of the subblock. An error correction codingscheme may be used for determining the error correction bits, e.g. basedon LDPC or polar coding. In some cases, a subblock or code block may beconsidered to be defined as a block or pattern of bits comprisinginformation bits, error detection bit/s determined based on theinformation bits, and error correction bit/s determined based on theinformation bits and/or error detection bit/s. It may be considered thatin a subblock, e.g. code block, the information bits (and possibly theerror correction bit/s) are protected and/or covered by the errorcorrection scheme or corresponding error correction bit/s. A code blockgroup may comprise one or more code blocks. In some variants, noadditional error detection bits and/or error correction bits areapplied, however, it may be considered to apply either or both. Atransport block may comprise one or more code block groups. It may beconsidered that no additional error detection bits and/or errorcorrection bits are applied, however, it may be considered to applyeither or both. In some specific variants, neither the code blockgroup/s nor the transport block comprise additional layers or errordetection or correction coding. A subpattern of acknowledgementsignaling (in particular indicating ACK or NACK) may pertain to a codeblock, e.g. indicating whether the code block has been correctlyreceived. It may be considered that a subpattern pertains to a subgrouplike a code block group or a data block like a transport block. In suchcases, it may indicate ACK, if all subblocks or code blocks of the groupor data/transport block are received correctly (e.g. based on a logicalAND operation), and NACK or another state of non-correct reception if atleast one subblock or code block has not been correctly received. Itshould be noted that a code block may be considered to be correctlyreceived not only if it actually has been correctly received, but alsoif it can be correctly reconstructed based on soft-combining and/or theerror correction coding.

A subpattern may pertain to one acknowledgement signaling process and/orone carrier like a component carrier and/or data block structure or datablock. It may in particular be considered that one (e.g. specific and/orsingle) subpattern pertains, e.g. is mapped by the codebook, to one(e.g., specific and/or single) acknowledgement signaling process, e.g. aspecific and/or single HARQ process. It may be considered that in thebit pattern, subpatterns are mapped to acknowledgement signalingprocesses and/or data blocks or data block structures on a one-to-onebasis. In some variants, there may be multiple subpatterns (and/orassociated acknowledgment signaling processes) associated to the samecomponent carrier, e.g. if multiple data streams transmitted on thecarrier are subject to acknowledgement signaling processes. A subpatternmay comprise one or more bits, the number of which may be considered torepresent its size or bit size. Different bit n-tupels (n being 1 orlarger) of a subpattern may be associated to different elements of adata block structure (e.g., data block or subblock or subblock group),and/or represent different resolutions. There may be considered variantsin which only one resolution is represented by a bit pattern, e.g. adata block. A bit n-tupel may represent acknowledgement information(also referred to a feedback), in particular ACK or NACK, andoptionally, (if n>1), may represent DTX/DRX or other reception states.ACK/NACK may be represented by one bit, or by more than one bit, e.g. toimprove disambiguity of bit sequences representing ACK or NACK, and/orto improve transmission reliability.

Generally, the acknowledgement signaling may be signaling at oneinstance and/or in one transmission timing structure, and/or scheduledfor common transmission and/or the acknowledgement information may bejointly encoded and/or modulated.

The acknowledgement information may pertain to a plurality of differenttransmissions, associated to and/or represented by data blockstructures, respectively the associated data blocks or data signaling.The data block structures, and/or the corresponding blocks and/orsignaling, may be scheduled for simultaneous transmission, e.g. for thesame transmission timing structure, in particular within the same slotor subframe, and/or on the same symbol/s. However, alternatives withscheduling for non-simultaneous transmission may be considered. Forexample, the acknowledgment information may pertain to data blocksscheduled for different transmission timing structures, e.g. differentslots (or mini-slots, or slots and mini-slots) or similar, which maycorrespondingly be received (or not or wrongly received). Schedulingsignaling may generally comprise indicating resources, e.g. time and/orfrequency resources, for example for receiving or transmitting thescheduled signaling.

A radio node, in particular a configuring radio node, may generally beadapted for scheduling data blocks for transmission and/or to provideand/or determine and/or configure associated assignment indications,which may include a total assignment indication. Configuring a secondradio node or a UE may comprise such scheduling and/or associateddetermining and/or configuring and/or providing of the assignmentindications.

A signaling characteristic may represent a physical layercharacteristic, and/or resources and/or resource structures in areception resource pool, which may be different from the transmissionresource pool. Resources and/or resource structures representingsignaling characteristics of characterizing signaling, in particulardownlink (or sidelink) control signaling, and/or a corresponding pool,may in particular comprise one or more CORESETs (COntrol REsource SETs),each of which may represent a group or subpool. A CORESET may beassociated to a specific time interval, in particular in a transmissiontiming structure like a slot, e.g. one or more symbols. It may beconsidered that a first CORESET is configured for the 1, 2, or 3 firstsymbols in a slot. A second CORESET may be configured for one or morelater symbols, e.g. the 5th and/or 6th symbol of the same slot. In thiscase, the second CORESET may in particular correspond to mini-slotrelated signaling, e.g. comprise resource structures associated to short(e.g., 1 or 2 symbols) response control signaling, and/or a shortlatency requirement (e.g., 1 or 2 symbols), and/or received or scheduledtransmission in a mini-slot and/or in response to a mini-slot, e.g.mini-slot data signaling. The first CORESET may be associated toslot-based signaling, e.g. long data signaling (e.g., longer than 2, 3or 4 symbols), and/or response control signaling with relaxed latencyrequirement (e.g., more than 1 or 2 symbols, and/or allowingtransmission in a later transmission timing structure like a later slotor subframe), and/or long response control signaling, e.g. longer than 2or 3 or 4 symbols. Generally, different CORESETs may be separated intime domain by at least 1 symbol, in particular by 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols.However, in some cases, the CORESETs, and/or more generally, subpools,may overlap or be neighbored in time. Depending in which of the groupsor subpools, in particular CORESETs, characterizing signaling isreceived, it may be associated to a specific subpool or group of thetransmission resource pool. A reception resource pool may be predefinedand/or configured to the responding radio node, e.g. by the receivingradio node, which may alternatively or additionally configure thetransmission resource pool. A pool configuration may generally bepredefined, or performed by the network or a network node (e.g., areceiving radio node), or another responding radio node taking thecorresponding functionality and/or also operating as a receiving radionode, e.g. in sidelink communication (in which the configuration may beperformed by another UE, or the network/network node). The transportblock size, and/or a transmission mode, and/or operational conditions,may be considered other examples of a signaling characteristic. Anoperational condition may for example be dependent on and/or indicatelatency conditions for one or more data streams and/or acknowledgementprocesses; this does not necessarily have to be a data stream or processacknowledgement information to be transmitted pertains to, e.g. to allowpreemption with low impact. A signaling characteristic may represent achannel, e.g. a physical channel, e.g. a shared or dedicated channel,and/or a channel for URLLC or a channel for broadband signaling (e.g.,eMBB), and/or a channel for MTC-related transmission. In some variants,one or more signaling characteristics may be indicated implicitly orexplicitly, e.g. utilizing control signaling.

A resource structure may represent time and/or frequency and/or coderesources. In particular, a resource structure may comprise a pluralityof resource elements, and/or one or more resource blocks/PRBs. To aresource structure, there may be associated a type of signaling, inparticular control signaling, and/or a signaling format, and/or alatency requirement. A latency requirement may in particular definewhen, after receiving signaling, the response has to be transmitted,e.g. with delay that may allow for processing. The requirement maydefine a delay of 1 symbol or 2 symbols between the end of the receivedsignaling and the transmission of response control signaling, inparticular acknowledgement signaling pertaining to the receivedsignaling, e.g. data signaling. A resource structure may correspond toresources in the transmission resource pool. Different resourcestructures may differ in at least one resource element. Resourcestructures may be arranged and/or grouped in the transmission resourcepool, e.g. according to a configuration, which may be a higher layerconfiguration, e.g. based on MAC or RRC signaling. Short responsecontrol signaling may generally be associated to a short format, e.g.short PUCCH or short PSCCH, e.g. according to NR standardization, ifapplicable. Long response control signaling may generally be associatedto a long format, e.g. long PUCCH or long PSCCH.

Signaling may be considered to carry a message and/or information, ifthe message and/or information is represented in the (modulated)waveform of the signaling. In particular, extraction of a message and/orinformation may require demodulation and/or decoding of the signaling.Information may be considered to be included in a message if the messagecomprises a value and/or parameter and/or bit field and/or indication orindicator representing the information, or more than one or acombination thereof. Information included in such a message may beconsidered to be carried by the signaling carrying the message, and viceversa. A signaling characteristic, however, may pertain to acharacteristic accessible without demodulation and/or decoding, and/ormay be determined or determinable independent thereof. However, in somecases it may be considered that signaling is demodulated and/or decodedto determine whether the characteristic is associated to specificsignaling, e.g. if the resources characterizing the signaling actuallybelong to control signaling and/or to signaling intended for theresponding radio node or user equipment. Also, in some cases, thecharacteristic may be provided as information in a message, inparticular if the characterizing signaling is not carrying the selectioncontrol message. Generally, selection of the resource structure may bebased on one or more than one signaling characteristics. A signalingcharacteristic may in particular represent one or more resources, inparticular in time domain, e.g. beginning and/or end and/or duration ofthe signaling, e.g., represented in symbol/s, and/or frequency range orresources of the signaling, e.g. represented in subcarrier/s, and/ornumerology of the signaling, in particular of control signaling or datasignaling like PDSCH signaling or PSSCH signaling. In some cases, thecharacteristic may indicate a message format, e.g. a format of theselection control message, for example an associated DCI or SCI format.It may generally be considered that a signaling characteristicrepresents and/or indicates a DCI format and/or search space (e.g.,reception pool) and/or code, e.g. scrambling code, and/or an identity,e.g. one of different identities (like R-NTI or C-NTIs) assigned to theresponding radio node or user equipment. Control signaling may bescrambled based on such identity.

The approaches described herein allow flexible acknowledgement signalingwithout unduly increase of overhead. In particular, the selection of afeedback configuration out of a set lowers the overhead for low levelcontrol signaling, e.g. signaling carrying DCI or SCI. With configuringthe retransmission configuration, efficient handling of flexibletransmission formats is provided. The approaches are in particularsuitable to easily adapt to demands on latency and/or transmissioncorrectness depending on use cases, which may be defined by, and/or bedependent on, requirements of an information system connected to theRAN.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approachesdescribed herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. Thedrawings comprise:

FIG. 1 , showing an exemplary radio node implemented as a userequipment;

FIG. 2 , showing an exemplary radio node implemented as a network node;and

FIG. 3 , schematically showing a communication setup between two radionodes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following, examples of the approaches are described in thecontext of NR technology. However, the approaches may be considered forother RATs as well. HARQ bits may be considered examples ofacknowledgement information, respectively of subpatterns thereof. Ingeneral, instead of single HARQ feedback bits, larger subpatterns may beused. Also, communication between a network node and a UE is discussedby way of example. However, sidelink communication or backhaulcommunication, between two UEs or two network nodes, respectively, maybe considered.

Code block groups are described in more detail. A transport block may besegmented or divided into multiple code blocks if the transport blockexceeds a certain size. For error detection, each code block as well asthe transport block may have its own CRC. In some cases, a single HARQfeedback bit may be generated per transport block. In addition, NR alsosupports code block group (CBG) HARQ feedback. Here, one or multiplecode blocks are grouped into a CBG, and one HARQ feedback bit isgenerated for each CBG. This facilitates that only a fraction of thetransport block needs to be retransmitted, if only one or few CBG are inerror.

CBG-based feedback can be particular useful for very large transportblocks, where a re-transmission of the complete transport block wouldlead to large overhead if only one or few code blocks are in error. WithCBG-based feedback, only the code block groups in error can beretransmitted. Another application of CBG-based feedback is preemption,where an ongoing transmission is interrupted in favor of a low latencytransmission. If the preempting transmission is only of short duration,just a few code blocks might be destroyed, favoring again a selectivetransmission of individual code blocks.

Mini-slots or non-slot-based transmissions may be considered. NRsupports slot-based transmission, where a DL assignment (or schedulingassignment, typically contained in a DCI transmitted on PDCCH) may bereceived at the beginning of a slot. The scheduled DL transmission(e.g., PDSCH) typically may also start early in the slot.

In addition, NR also supports non-slot-based transmissions ormini-slots. Here, the scheduled DL transmission (e.g., PDSCH) can inprinciple start at any symbol, also the transmission duration isflexible and usually (significantly) shorter than a slot duration. Thescheduling PDCCH might be either located at the beginning of the slot orat the beginning of the actual DL transmission, or in a suitableCORESET. The latter is especially useful for low latency transmission,where the determination that a transmission needs to be scheduledhappens late and slot-based scheduling is no longer possible. Mini-slotsare therefore especially useful for above mentioned low latencytransmissions which might interrupt (preempt) an already ongoingtransmission.

In NR terminology, a slot-based transmission is also denoted as PDSCHscheduling Type A, while non-slot-based transmission (mini-slot) isdenoted PDSCH transmission Type B.

Exemplary DL control signaling is discussed in more detail. DLassignments and UL grants are contained in Downlink Control Information(DCI) messages that are typically sent on the PDCCH. The resources a UEsearches for a PDCCH candidate are typically organized in a controlresource set (CORESET). Within a CORESET a UE might have one or moresearch spaces configured. A search space is an arrangement of physicalresources within the CORESET which the UE needs to search for PDCCHcandidates and the contained DCI. Typically, PDCCH candidates and/or Dasof different sizes are organized in different search spaces. A UE needsto determine if a detected PDCCH candidate is for the UE. This could forexample be done by including a UE identifier (e.g. RNTI) into the DCI,or scrambling the CRC of the encoded DCI with the UE identity (e.g.RNTI). For Polar codes, which may be used to encode DCI, UE identify(e.g. RNTI) can also be put on frozen bits, a particularity of Polarcodes.

A carrier may be portioned into bandwidth parts (BWP). Bandwidth partscan have multiple usages. One of the envisioned usage scenarios is toenable multiple numerologies mixed in frequency-domain on the samecarrier. A BWP configuration may indicate a set of frequency-domainresources, and an associate numerology. A UE can be configured with oneor multiple BWP parts. DL and UL configurations (and/or SLconfigurations) may be are independent from each other. Typically, eachBWP has its own associated CORESET for the scheduling DCI.

CBG configuration connected to a carrier does lead to a non-desiredbehavior in case of the preemption scenario outlined above: A UE that isconfigured with both slots and mini-slot on the same carrier would havethe same CBG configuration for both. However, mini-slots are typicallyused to preempt an ongoing transmission (either for the same or anotherUE). Mini-slots respectively the sizes of data/transport blocktransmitted therein are typically small. A CBG configuration for itsHARQ feedback may be disadvantageous. However, slot based transmissioncan be large, and/or can be preempted. Having a CBG configuration forHARQ feedback of slots can increase efficiency of the wireless system.

Accordingly, there is suggested providing several differentCBG/transport block configurations used for HARQ feedback pertaining toa transmission, e.g. for a carrier. Which configuration is selected maybut tied to, or be determined based on, a signaling characteristic likea physical layer characteristic of the transmission. Multiple CBGconfigurations (which may include one or more transport blockconfigurations) can co-exists and the appropriate one may be selectedbased on a physical layer characteristic of the transmission.

Examples of physical layer characteristics of a transmission areCORESET, PDCCH candidate that has been used for scheduling thetransmission, RNTI contained in the scheduling DCI (either implicit orexplicit), DCI that has been used for scheduling the transmission, anyinformation contained in the DCI, the time and/or frequency location ofthe scheduled transmission, BWP, DCI format.

As an alternative, a CBG configuration may be modified by the UE for amini-slot based transmission, e.g. to use transport block based feedbackinstead. The modification may be considered defining a secondconfiguration based on the CBG configuration.

Examples of multiple CBG configurations may be considered. A CBGconfiguration may not the same for a carrier, but may be tied to aphysical layer characteristic of the transmission (from a UEperspective, this would be typically a received DL or sidelinktransmission). On one carrier, multiple CBG configurations canco-exists, and the appropriate one is selected based on a physical layercharacteristic of the transmission. The UE uses then the selected CBGconfiguration when it constructs and transmits its HARQ feedback for thetransmission. The multiple CBG configurations may be considered torepresent a set of acknowledgement configurations. Instead of beingconfigured for a carrier, they may be configured for one or morecarriers and/or BWPs and/or carrier aggregations and/or sets ofcarriers. A retransmission configuration may be configured analogously.

A carrier can for example be configured with slot-based and non-slotbased transmissions (mini-slots). A first CBG configuration could applyfor HARQ feedback of slot-based transmission, while another CBGconfiguration (e.g. to use transport block based feedback) could applyto HARQ feedback of non-slot-based transmissions. Often HARQ feedbackfor a non-slot-based transmission would not use CBG-based feedback, buttransport block based feedback.

Slot and mini-slot may be scheduled by scheduling assignments containedin DCI transmitted on a PDCCH. The CBG configuration to use for the HARQfeedback could be associated with any parameter (signalingcharacteristic) that is different for slots and non-slot-basedtransmissions. For example, if different CORESETs or search spaces areused to schedule slots and non-slot-based transmissions, the CBGconfiguration could be associated with CORESET or search space. ACORESET or search space configuration can also contain a CBGconfiguration. If different RNTIs are used to schedule slots andnon-slot-based transmissions, different CBG configurations may beconfigured for the different RNTIs, and may be selected based on a RNTIused for scheduling.

In general, a set of different CBG configurations may be configured,e.g. on a carrier. Information in the DCI (either implicit or explicit),e.g. a configuration indication, may select one of the configured CBGconfigurations that should be used for the HARQ feedback of thetransmission scheduled by the DCI. Basing the CBG selection on RNTI isan example how information contained in the DCI implicitly selects theCBG configuration.

The DCI could contain a bit field that determines the time-domainresources of the scheduled transmission, e.g. start symbol and/or slotand end symbol and/or slot. This bit field could also be used todetermine the CBG configuration used in the HARQ feedback. The DCI fielddetermining the time-domain resources can also—e.g., instead of, or inaddition to, explicitly indicating a start and stop position—select oneout of a set of configured time-domain resource allocations.

An example for an explicit indication would be to include in a DCI anexplicit bit or bit field that selects the CBG configuration for HARQfeedback out of a set of CBG configurations configured, e.g. for thecarrier.

The DCI size itself might also be used to select between multipleconfigured CBG configurations. A transmission that should use CBG basedfeedback might have CBG-specific DCI fields which can be omitted for atransmission that should not use CBG-based feedback. Thepresence/non-presence of such a field or the DCI size can thus be usedto select a CBG configuration for the HARQ feedback.

The CBG configuration for the HARQ feedback can also be based onproperties of the transmission itself. A set of CBG configurations maybe configured, and a configuration may be selected based on one or moreproperties (signaling characteristics) of the transmission. Such aproperty could e.g. be where in the time-frequency domain thetransmission is located. One example could be transmission length and/ortransport block size. If the transmission length is below a certainthreshold, a second CBG configuration may be selected, whereas fortransmission above or equal to this threshold, a first CBG configurationmay apply. Instead of transmission length, the transport block size, orthe number of code blocks within the transport block could select one oftwo or more configured acknowledgement/CBG configurations.

Another possibility is to have per-BWP CBG configurations. Depending onthe BWP in which the transmission is scheduled, the appropriate CBGconfiguration may be selected and used in the HARQ feedbacktransmission. If BWP have their own CORESET (or other distinguishingPDCCH properties) also PDCCH properties as explained earlier can beused.

Note that transport block based feedback is also considered as (a verysimple) CBG configuration.

Modified CBG configuration is discussed in the following. If only asingle CBG configuration explicitly exists, e.g. on a carrier, anotherpossibility is that the UE modifies the configured CBG configuration anduses the modified CBG configuration for HARQ feedback. Thus, analternative configuration is created, defining a set of twoconfigurations. An important part of a CBG configuration is the maxnumber of CBG the UE should use for its HARQ feedback. In case a UE hasfewer or may be even only one code block (and thus code block group), aCBG configuration may be unnecessary or undesired. The UE may modify thenumber of CBG in its HARQ report as a function of code blocks in thereceived transmission. For example, if the received transmissioncontains a transport block with only one code block (or multiple butbelow a threshold code blocks) a UE may use a transport block based HARQfeedback and select/create a corresponding configuration.

Generally, a carrier can be configured with multiple CBG configurations.Which CBG configuration is applied for the HARQ feedback transmissionmay be determined by a physical layer characteristic of the transmissionthe HARQ feedback is associated with.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a terminal orwireless device 10, which may in particular be implemented as a UE (UserEquipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may alsobe referred to as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controllerconnected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, e.g. acommunicating module or determining module, may be implemented in and/orexecutable by, the processing circuitry 20, in particular as module inthe controller. Radio node 10 also comprises radio circuitry 22providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functionality(e.g., one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers),the radio circuitry 22 being connected or connectable to the processingcircuitry. An antenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10 is connected orconnectable to the radio circuitry 22 to collect or send and/or amplifysignals. Radio circuitry 22 and the processing circuitry 20 controllingit are configured for cellular communication with a network, e.g. a RANas described herein, and/or for sidelink communication. Radio node 10may generally be adapted to carry out any of the methods of operating aradio node like terminal or UE disclosed herein; in particular, it maycomprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/ormodules.

FIG. 2 schematically show a radio node 100, which may in particular beimplemented as a network node 100, for example an eNB or gNB or similarfor NR. Radio node 100 comprises processing circuitry (which may also bereferred to as control circuitry) 120, which may comprise a controllerconnected to a memory. Any module, e.g. transmitting module and/orreceiving module and/or configuring module of the node 100 may beimplemented in and/or executable by the processing circuitry 120. Theprocessing circuitry 120 is connected to control radio circuitry 122 ofthe node 100, which provides receiver and transmitter and/or transceiverfunctionality (e.g., comprising one or more transmitters and/orreceivers and/or transceivers). An antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected or connectable to radio circuitry 122 for signal reception ortransmittance and/or amplification. Node 100 may be adapted to carry outany of the methods for operating a radio node or network node disclosedherein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g.processing circuitry, and/or modules. The antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected to and/or comprise an antenna array. The node 100,respectively its circuitry, may be adapted to perform any of the methodsof operating a network node or a radio node as described herein; inparticular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processingcircuitry, and/or modules. The radio node 100 may generally comprisecommunication circuitry, e.g. for communication with another networknode, like a radio node, and/or with a core network and/or an internetor local net, in particular with an information system, which mayprovide information and/or data to be transmitted to a user equipment.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary setup comprising a UE 10 and a radio node 100,which may be a base station for NR, e.g. an eNB or gNB. The radio node100 may transmit DL data signaling, in response to which the UE 10 maytransmit acknowledgement signaling utilizing a feedback configurationselected from a set of acknowledgement configurations, which may beconfigured or predefined. The DL data signaling and/or theacknowledgement signaling may be scheduled with DCI, e.g. a schedulingassignment, which in some cases may indicate a transmission format forthe acknowledgement signaling. In the other communication direction, theUE may transmit UL data signaling, in response to which the radio node100 may transmit a retransmission configuration. The retransmissionconfiguration may be transmitted as DCI, and/or may include schedulinginformation for future UL transmission. In particular, it may beincluded in an UL or scheduling grant. The retransmission configurationmay indicate whether and/or which code blocks or code block groupsand/or transport blocks transmitted with UL data signaling have to beretransmitted, e.g. utilizing a corresponding bitmap, and/or indicatinga corresponding transmission format.

References to specific resource structures like transmission timingstructure and/or symbol and/or slot and/or mini-slot and/or subcarrierand/or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may bepredefined and/or configured or configurable. A transmission timingstructure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or moresymbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure aretransmission time interval (TTI), subframe, slot and mini-slot. A slotmay comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefined and/or configured orconfigurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A mini-slotmay comprise a number of symbols (which may in particular beconfigurable or configured) smaller than the number of symbols of aslot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols. A transmission timingstructure may cover a time interval of a specific length, which may bedependent on symbol time length and/or cyclic prefix used. Atransmission timing structure may pertain to, and/or cover, a specifictime interval in a time stream, e.g. synchronized for communication.Timing structures used and/or scheduled for transmission, e.g. slotand/or mini-slots, may be scheduled in relation to, and/or synchronizedto, a timing structure provided and/or defined by other transmissiontiming structures. Such transmission timing structures may define atiming grid, e.g., with symbol time intervals within individualstructures representing the smallest timing units. Such a timing gridmay for example be defined by slots or subframes (wherein in some cases,subframes may be considered specific variants of slots). A transmissiontiming structure may have a duration (length in time) determined basedon the durations of its symbols, possibly in addition to cyclicprefix/es used. The symbols of a transmission timing structure may havethe same duration, or may in some variants have different duration. Thenumber of symbols in a transmission timing structure may be predefinedand/or configured or configurable, and/or be dependent on numerology.The timing of a mini-slot may generally be configured or configurable,in particular by the network and/or a network node. The timing may beconfigurable to start and/or end at any symbol of the transmissiontiming structure, in particular one or more slots.

There is generally considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry outand/or control any method described herein, in particular when executedon the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered acarrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product asdescribed herein.

A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media.Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/orreceivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or aprogram product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/ora program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise aguiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. Aguiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/orstore signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electricalsignals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carriermedium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted toguide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular aguiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field,e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material,e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at leastone of a memory, which may be volatile or non-volatile, a buffer, acache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

A system comprising one or more radio nodes as described herein, inparticular a network node and a user equipment, is described. The systemmay be a wireless communication system, and/or provide and/or representa radio access network.

Moreover, there may be generally considered a method of operating aninformation system, the method comprising providing information.Alternatively, or additionally, an information system adapted forproviding information may be considered. Providing information maycomprise providing information for, and/or to, a target system, whichmay comprise and/or be implemented as radio access network and/or aradio node, in particular a network node or user equipment or terminal.Providing information may comprise transferring and/or streaming and/orsending and/or passing on the information, and/or offering theinformation for such and/or for download, and/or triggering suchproviding, e.g. by triggering a different system or node to streamand/or transfer and/or send and/or pass on the information. Theinformation system may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to,a target, for example via one or more intermediate systems, e.g. a corenetwork and/or internet and/or private or local network. Information maybe provided utilizing and/or via such intermediate system/s. Providinginformation may be for radio transmission and/or for transmission via anair interface and/or utilizing a RAN or radio node as described herein.Connecting the information system to a target, and/or providinginformation, may be based on a target indication, and/or adaptive to atarget indication. A target indication may indicate the target, and/orone or more parameters of transmission pertaining to the target and/orthe paths or connections over which the information is provided to thetarget. Such parameter/s may in particular pertain to the air interfaceand/or radio access network and/or radio node and/or network node.Example parameters may indicate for example type and/or nature of thetarget, and/or transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and/or latencyand/or reliability and/or cost, respectively one or more estimatesthereof. The target indication may be provided by the target, ordetermined by the information system, e.g. based on information receivedfrom the target and/or historical information, and/or be provided by auser, for example a user operating the target or a device incommunication with the target, e.g. via the RAN and/or air interface.For example, a user may indicate on a user equipment communicating withthe information system that information is to be provided via a RAN,e.g. by selecting from a selection provided by the information system,for example on a user application or user interface, which may be a webinterface. An information system may comprise one or more informationnodes. An information node may generally comprise processing circuitryand/or communication circuitry. In particular, an information systemand/or an information node may be implemented as a computer and/or acomputer arrangement, e.g. a host computer or host computer arrangementand/or server or server arrangement. In some variants, an interactionserver (e.g., web server) of the information system may provide a userinterface, and based on user input may trigger transmitting and/orstreaming information provision to the user (and/or the target) fromanother server, which may be connected or connectable to the interactionserver and/or be part of the information system or be connected orconnectable thereto. The information may be any kind of data, inparticular data intended for a user of for use at a terminal, e.g. videodata and/or audio data and/or location data and/or interactive dataand/or game-related data and/or environmental data and/or technical dataand/or traffic data and/or vehicular data and/or circumstantial dataand/or operational data. The information provided by the informationsystem may be mapped to, and/or mappable to, and/or be intended formapping to, communication or data signaling and/or one or more datachannels as described herein (which may be signaling or channel/s of anair interface and/or used within a RAN and/or for radio transmission).It may be considered that the information is formatted based on thetarget indication and/or target, e.g. regarding data amount and/or datarate and/or data structure and/or timing, which in particular may bepertaining to a mapping to communication or data signaling and/or a datachannels. Mapping information to data signaling and/or data channel/smay be considered to refer to using the signaling/channel/s to carry thedata, e.g. on higher layers of communication, with thesignaling/channel/s underlying the transmission. A target indicationgenerally may comprise different components, which may have differentsources, and/or which may indicate different characteristics of thetarget and/or communication path/s thereto. A format of information maybe specifically selected, e.g. from a set of different formats, forinformation to be transmitted on an air interface and/or by a RAN asdescribed herein. This may be particularly pertinent since an airinterface may be limited in terms of capacity and/or of predictability,and/or potentially be cost sensitive. The format may be selected to beadapted to the transmission indication, which may in particular indicatethat a RAN or radio node as described herein is in the path (which maybe the indicated and/or planned and/or expected path) of informationbetween the target and the information system. A (communication) path ofinformation may represent the interface/s (e.g., air and/or cableinterfaces) and/or the intermediate system/s (if any), between theinformation system and/or the node providing or transferring theinformation, and the target, over which the information is, or is to be,passed on. A path may be (at least partly) undetermined when a targetindication is provided, and/or the information is provided/transferredby the information system, e.g. if an internet is involved, which maycomprise multiple, dynamically chosen paths. Information and/or a formatused for information may be packet-based, and/or be mapped, and/or bemappable and/or be intended for mapping, to packets. Alternatively, oradditionally, there may be considered a method for operating a targetdevice comprising providing a target indicating to an informationsystem. More alternatively, or additionally, a target device may beconsidered, the target device being adapted for providing a targetindication to an information system. In another approach, there may beconsidered a target indication tool adapted for, and/or comprising anindication module for, providing a target indication to an informationsystem. The target device may generally be a target as described above.A target indication tool may comprise, and/or be implemented as,software and/or application or app, and/or web interface or userinterface, and/or may comprise one or more modules for implementingactions performed and/or controlled by the tool. The tool and/or targetdevice may be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receiving auser input, based on which a target indicating may be determined and/orprovided. Alternatively, or additionally, the tool and/or target devicemay be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receivinginformation and/or communication signaling carrying information, and/oroperating on, and/or presenting (e.g., on a screen and/or as audio or asother form of indication), information. The information may be based onreceived information and/or communication signaling carryinginformation. Presenting information may comprise processing receivedinformation, e.g. decoding and/or transforming, in particular betweendifferent formats, and/or for hardware used for presenting. Operating oninformation may be independent of or without presenting, and/or proceedor succeed presenting, and/or may be without user interaction or evenuser reception, for example for automatic processes, or target deviceswithout (e.g., regular) user interaction like MTC devices, of forautomotive or transport or industrial use. The information orcommunication signaling may be expected and/or received based on thetarget indication. Presenting and/or operating on information maygenerally comprise one or more processing steps, in particular decodingand/or executing and/or interpreting and/or transforming information.Operating on information may generally comprise relaying and/ortransmitting the information, e.g. on an air interface, which mayinclude mapping the information onto signaling (such mapping maygenerally pertain to one or more layers, e.g. one or more layers of anair interface, e.g. RLC (Radio Link Control) layer and/or MAC layerand/or physical layer/s). The information may be imprinted (or mapped)on communication signaling based on the target indication, which maymake it particularly suitable for use in a RAN (e.g., for a targetdevice like a network node or in particular a UE or terminal). The toolmay generally be adapted for use on a target device, like a UE orterminal. Generally, the tool may provide multiple functionalities, e.g.for providing and/or selecting the target indication, and/or presenting,e.g. video and/or audio, and/or operating on and/or storing receivedinformation. Providing a target indication may comprise transmitting ortransferring the indication as signaling, and/or carried on signaling,in a RAN, for example if the target device is a UE, or the tool for aUE. It should be noted that such provided information may be transferredto the information system via one or more additionally communicationinterfaces and/or paths and/or connections. The target indication may bea higher-layer indication and/or the information provided by theinformation system may be higher-layer information, e.g. applicationlayer or user-layer, in particular above radio layers like transportlayer and physical layer. The target indication may be mapped onphysical layer radio signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane,and/or the information may be mapped on physical layer radiocommunication signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane (inparticular, in reverse communication directions). The describedapproaches allow a target indication to be provided, facilitatinginformation to be provided in a specific format particularly suitableand/or adapted to efficiently use an air interface. A user input may forexample represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmissionmodes or formats, and/or paths, e.g. in terms of data rate and/orpackaging and/or size of information to be provided by the informationsystem.

In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate thebandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of thesubcarriers in a carrier. Different numerologies may in particular bedifferent in the bandwidth of a subcarrier. In some variants, all thesubcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated to them. Thenumerology and/or subcarrier spacing may be different between carriersin particular regarding the subcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length,and/or a time length of a timing structure pertaining to a carrier maybe dependent on the carrier frequency, and/or the subcarrier spacingand/or the numerology. In particular, different numerologies may havedifferent symbol time lengths.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more sy and/or signals and/ormessages. A signal may comprise or represent one or more bits. Anindication may represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal,or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included inand/or represented by a message. Signaling, in particular controlsignaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, whichmay be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated todifferent signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining toone or more such processes and/or corresponding information. Anindication may comprise signaling, and/or a plurality of signals and/ormessages and/or may be comprised therein, which may be transmitted ondifferent carriers and/or be associated to different acknowledgementsignaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or moresuch processes. Signaling associated to a channel may be transmittedsuch that represents signaling and/or information for that channel,and/or that the signaling is interpreted by the transmitter and/orreceiver to belong to that channel. Such signaling may generally complywith transmission parameters and/or format/s for the channel.

Reference signaling may be signaling comprising one or more referencesymbols and/or structures. Reference signaling may be adapted forgauging and/or estimating and/or representing transmission conditions,e.g. channel conditions and/or transmission path conditions and/orchannel (or signal or transmission) quality. It may be considered thatthe transmission characteristics (e.g., signal strength and/or formand/or modulation and/or timing) of reference signaling are availablefor both transmitter and receiver of the signaling (e.g., due to beingpredefined and/or configured or configurable and/or being communicated).Different types of reference signaling may be considered, e.g.pertaining to uplink, downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (inparticular, cell-wide, e.g., CRS) or device or user specific (addressedto a specific target or user equipment, e.g., CSI-RS),demodulation-related (e.g., DMRS) and/or signal strength related, e.g.power-related or energy-related or amplitude-related (e.g., SRS or pilotsignaling) and/or phase-related, etc.

Uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division MultipleAccess) signaling. Downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMAsignaling. However, signaling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank basedsignaling may be considered one alternative).

A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted forwireless and/or radio (and/or microwave) frequency communication, and/orfor communication utilizing an air interface, e.g. according to acommunication standard.

A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. Anetwork node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network,e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relaynode and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP)and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN asdescribed herein.

The terms wireless device, user equipment (UE) and terminal may beconsidered to be interchangeable in the context of this disclosure. Awireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent an end devicefor communication utilizing the wireless communication network, and/orbe implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples ofuser equipments may comprise a phone like a smartphone, a personalcommunication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, inparticular laptop, a sensor or machine with radio capability (and/oradapted for the air interface), in particular for MTC(Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referred to M2M,Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. Auser equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary.

A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radiocircuitry. A radio node, in particular a network node, may in some casescomprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry, with which itmay be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a corenetwork.

Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processing circuitry maycomprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g.,microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific IntegratedCircuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. Itmay be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is(operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memoryarrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. Amemory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples formemories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random AccessMemory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/oroptical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/orEPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically ErasableProgrammable ROM).

Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receiversand/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable astransmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint or separatedcircuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one package orhousing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillatorsand/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected or connectableto antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays.An antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may bearranged in a dimensional array, e.g. 2D or 3D array, and/or antennapanels. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example of anantenna array. However, in some variants, a RRH may be also beimplemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and/orfunctionality implemented therein.

Communication circuitry may comprise radio circuitry and/or cablecircuitry. Communication circuitry generally may comprise one or moreinterfaces, which may be air interface/s and/or cable interface/s and/oroptical interface/s, e.g. laser-based. Interface/s may be in particularpacket-based. Cable circuitry and/or a cable interfaces may comprise,and/or be connected or connectable to, one or more cables (e.g., opticalfiber-based and/or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly(e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces) beconnected or connectable to a target, e.g. controlled by communicationcircuitry and/or processing circuitry.

Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented insoftware and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may beassociated to different components of a radio node, e.g. differentcircuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered thata module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries. Aprogram product as described herein may comprise the modules related toa device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a userequipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may beperformed on, and/or controlled by the associated circuitry).

A radio access network may be a wireless communication network, and/or aRadio Access Network (RAN) in particular according to a communicationstandard. A communication standard may in particular a standardaccording to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particularLTE Evolution.

A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio AccessNetwork (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/orwireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a corenetwork. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectivelysuccessors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and/orone or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. A network nodemay in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wirelessand/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal maybe any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellularcommunication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE) or mobilephone or smartphone or computing device or vehicular communicationdevice or device for machine-type-communication (MTC), etc. A terminalmay be mobile, or in some cases stationary. A RAN or a wirelesscommunication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE,or at least two radio nodes. There may be generally considered awireless communication network or system, e.g. a RAN or RAN system,comprising at least one radio node, and/or at least one network node andat least one terminal.

Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network ornetwork node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain totransmission from the terminal to the network or network node.Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from oneterminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelinktransmission and reception) may be considered communication directions.In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to describedwireless communication between network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhauland/or relay communication and/or (wireless) network communication forexample between base stations or similar network nodes, in particularcommunication terminating at such. It may be considered that backhauland/or relay communication and/or network communication is implementedas a form of sidelink or uplink communication or similar thereto.

Control information or a control information message or correspondingsignaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on a control channel,e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (ora sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE).For example, control information/allocation information may be signaledby a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or aPDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Acknowledgement signaling, e.g. as a form of control information orsignaling like uplink control information/signaling, may be transmittedby a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or PUSCH(Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Multiple channels may apply for multi-component/multi-carrier indicationor signaling.

Signaling may generally be considered to represent an electromagneticwave structure (e.g., over a time interval and frequency interval),which is intended to convey information to at least one specific orgeneric (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signaling) target. A processof signaling may comprise transmitting the signaling. Transmittingsignaling, in particular control signaling or communication signaling,e.g. comprising or representing acknowledgement signaling and/orresource requesting information, may comprise encoding and/ormodulating. Encoding and/or modulating may comprise error detectioncoding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling.Receiving control signaling may comprise corresponding decoding and/ordemodulation. Error detection coding may comprise, and/or be based on,parity or checksum approaches, e.g. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check).Forward error correction coding may comprise and/or be based on forexample turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding, and/or polar codingand/or LDPC coding (Low Density Parity Check). The type of coding usedmay be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) the coded signal isassociated to. A code rate may represent the ratio of the number ofinformation bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits afterencoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detectioncoding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to informationbits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.

Communication signaling may comprise, and/or represent, and/or beimplemented as, data signaling, and/or user plane signaling.Communication signaling may be associated to a data channel, e.g. aphysical downlink channel or physical uplink channel or physicalsidelink channel, in particular a PDSCH (Physical Downlink SharedChannel) or PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared Channel). Generally, a datachannel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. Data signalingmay be signaling associated to and/or on a data channel.

An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate theinformation it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may forexample be based on position and/or resource used for transmission.Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrization withone or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or oneor more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particularbe considered that control signaling as described herein, based on theutilized resource sequence, implicitly indicates the control signalingtype.

A resource element may generally describe the smallest individuallyusable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/ordemodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe atime-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and asubcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated toa resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. asdefined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequencyband for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal(jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. Aresource element may generally be as defined by a correspondingstandard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrierspacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbolsand/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have differentextension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particularresource elements pertaining to different carriers.

A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and/or coderesource, on which signaling, e.g. according to a specific format, maybe communicated, for example transmitted and/or received, and/or beintended for transmission and/or reception.

A resource pool generally may indicate and/or comprise resources, inparticular time-frequency resources, e.g. time and frequency intervals,which may be contiguous or interrupted, and/or code resources. Aresource pool may in particular indicate and/or comprise resourceelements and/or resource blocks, e.g. PRBs. A radio node like a userequipment may be considered to be configured with a resource pool if itreceived corresponding control signaling configuring it therewith. Suchcontrol signaling may in particular be transmitted by a receiving radionode as described herein. The control signaling may in particular behigher layer signaling, e.g. MAC and/or RRC signaling, and/or may besemi-static or semi-persistent. In some cases, the responding radio nodeor user equipment may be considered configured with a resource pool, ifit is informed about a corresponding configuration, e.g. that it mayaccess resources in the pool for transmitting. Such a configuration insome cases may be predefined, e.g. based on a standard and/or defaultconfiguration. A resource pool may be dedicated to one responding radionode or user equipment, or in some cases shared between several. It maybe considered that a resource pool may be general, or for specific typesof signaling, e.g. control signaling or data signaling. A transmissionresource pool may in particular be for control signaling, e.g. uplinkcontrol signaling and/or sidelink control signaling, and/or may bededicated to the user equipment/responding radio node. It may beconsidered that a resource pool comprises a plurality of resourcestructures, which may be arranged in subpools or groups, e.g. pertainingand/or according to type of (received or scheduled) signaling or type ofresponse control signaling. Each group or subpool may comprise a numberof resource structures, wherein the number may be representable by anindicator and/or bit field of the selection control information. Forexample, the maximum number of resource structures in a group maycorrespond to the maximum number of different values representable bythe bit field or indicator. Different groups may have different numbersof resource structures. It may generally be considered that a groupcomprises a smaller number of resource structures than representable bythe indicator or bit field. A resource pool may represent a search spaceand/or space of availability of resources and/or resource structuresavailable for specific signaling. In particular, a transmission resourcepool may be considered to represent a (time/frequency and/or code)domain or space of resources available for response control signaling.

A signaling characteristic may represent resources and/or resourcestructures in a reception resource pool, which may be different from thetransmission resource pool. Resources and/or resource structuresrepresenting signaling characteristics of characterizing signaling, inparticular downlink (or sidelink) control signaling, and/or acorresponding pool, may in particular comprise one or more CORESETs(COntrol REsource SETs), each of which may represent a group or subpool.A CORESET may be associated to a specific time interval, in particularin a transmission timing structure like a slot, e.g. one or moresymbols. It may be considered that a first CORESET is configured for the1, 2, or 3 first symbols in a slot. A second CORESET may be configuredfor one or more later symbols, e.g. the 5th and/or 6th symbol of thesame slot. In this case, the second CORESET may in particular correspondto mini-slot related signaling, e.g. comprise resource structuresassociated to short (e.g., 1 or 2 symbols) response control signaling,and/or a short latency requirement (e.g., 1 or 2 symbols), and/orreceived or scheduled transmission in a mini-slot and/or in response toa mini-slot, e.g. mini-slot data signaling. The first CORESET may beassociated to slot-based signaling, e.g. long data signaling (e.g.,longer than 2, 3 or 4 symbols), and/or response control signaling withrelaxed latency requirement (e.g., more than 1 or 2 symbols, and/orallowing transmission in a later transmission timing structure like alater slot or subframe), and/or long response control signaling, e.g.longer than 2 or 3 or 4 symbols. Generally, different CORESETs may beseparated in time domain by at least 1 symbol, in particular by 1, 2, 3or 4 symbols. Depending in which of the groups or subpools, inparticular CORESETs, characterizing signaling is received, it may beassociated to a specific subpool or group of the transmission resourcepool. A reception resource pool may be predefined and/or configured tothe responding radio node, e.g. by the receiving radio node, which mayalternatively or additionally configure the transmission resource pool.Pool configuration may generally be predefined, or performed by thenetwork or a network node (e.g., a receiving radio node), or anotherresponding radio node taking the corresponding functionality and/or alsooperating as a receiving radio node, e.g. in sidelink communication (inwhich the configuration may be performed by another UE, or thenetwork/network node).

A border symbol may generally represent a starting symbol or an endingsymbol for transmitting and/or receiving. A starting symbol may inparticular be a starting symbol of uplink or sidelink signaling, forexample control signaling or data signaling. Such signaling may be on adata channel or control channel, e.g. a physical channel, in particulara physical uplink shared channel (like PUSCH) or a sidelink data orshared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (like PUCCH) or asidelink control channel. If the starting symbol is associated tocontrol signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signalingmay be in response to received signaling (in sidelink or downlink), e.g.representing acknowledgement signaling associated thereto, which may beHARQ or ARQ signaling. An ending symbol may represent an ending symbol(in time) of downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which maybe intended or scheduled for the radio node or user equipment. Suchdownlink signaling may in particular be data signaling, e.g. on aphysical downlink channel like a shared channel, e.g. a PDSCH (PhysicalDownlink Shared Channel). A starting symbol may be determined based on,and/or in relation to, such an ending symbol.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment,may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set and/orinstructed to operate according to the configuration. Configuring may bedone by another device, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio nodeof the network like a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which caseit may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to beconfigured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration tobe configured and/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to aconfiguration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving onallocated resources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node mayconfigure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from anetwork or network node. A network node may utilize, and/or be adaptedto utilize, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation informationmay be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data maycomprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or oneor more corresponding indications and/or message/s

Generally, configuring may include determining configuration datarepresenting the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it toone or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which maytransmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may berepeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, oradditionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or otherdevice, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertainingto configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node,which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmittingreceived configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determininga configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radionode may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which maybe able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interfacein the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring aterminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissionsfor the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalingand/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signaling, inparticular acknowledgement signaling, and/or configuring resourcesand/or a resource pool therefor.

A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in frequencydomain by another resource structure, if they share a common borderfrequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as alower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented bythe upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n, which alsorepresents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n+1. Aresource structure may be considered to be neighbored in time domain byanother resource structure, if they share a common border time, e.g. oneas an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as a lower(or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example berepresented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symboln, which also represents the beginning of a symbol time intervalassigned to a symbol n+1.

Generally, a resource structure being neighbored by another resourcestructure in a domain may also be referred to as abutting and/orbordering the other resource structure in the domain.

A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and/orfrequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and afrequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and/or becomprised of resource elements, and/or the time interval of a resourcestructure may comprise and/or be comprised of symbol time interval/s,and/or the frequency interval of a resource structure may compriseand/or be comprised of subcarrier/s. A resource element may beconsidered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or aPhysical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others.A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. aPUSCH or PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot orPRB.

Examples of a resource structure in frequency domain comprise abandwidth or band, or a bandwidth part. A bandwidth part may be a partof a bandwidth available for a radio node for communicating, e.g. due tocircuitry and/or configuration and/or regulations and/or a standard. Abandwidth part may be configured or configurable to a radio node. Insome variants, a bandwidth part may be the part of a bandwidth used forcommunicating, e.g. transmitting and/or receiving, by a radio node. Thebandwidth part may be smaller than the bandwidth (which may be a devicebandwidth defined by the circuitry/configuration of a device, and/or asystem bandwidth, e.g. available for a RAN). It may be considered that abandwidth part comprises one or more resource blocks or resource blockgroups, in particular one or more PRBs or PRB groups. A bandwidth partmay pertain to, and/or comprise, one or more carriers.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/orpertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. Itmay be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of subcarriers. Acarrier may have assigned to it a central frequency or center frequencyinterval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers (to eachsubcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth orinterval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and/or may beneighboring in frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may beconsidered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may alsoinclude wireless communication utilizing microwave and/or millimeterand/or other frequencies, in particular between 100 MHz or 1 GHz, and100 GHz or 20 or 10 GHz. Such communication may utilize one or morecarriers.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generallybe any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/orwireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, inparticular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier maycomprise a carrier accessed based on a LBT procedure (which may becalled LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be consideredthat the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving ortransmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to thecell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by orfor one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for ULcommunication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrierfor DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may beconsidered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DLcarriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at leastone carrier for UL communication/transmission and DLcommunication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. Achannel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, inparticular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or forcarrying control signaling/control information may be considered acontrol channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/orif it carries control plane information. Analogously, a channel carryingand/or for carrying data signaling/user information may be considered adata channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or ifit carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for aspecific communication direction, or for two complementary communicationdirections (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in two directions), in whichcase it may be considered to have two component channels, one for eachdirection. Examples of channels comprise a channel for low latencyand/or high reliability transmission, in particular a channel forUltra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which may be forcontrol and/or data.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol timelength, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacingand/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol maybe considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length inrelation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on acarrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrierspacing of, or associated to, a symbol. Accordingly, different symbolsmay have different symbol time lengths. In particular, numerologies withdifferent subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time length.Generally, a symbol time length may be based on, and/or include, a guardtime interval or cyclic extension, e.g. prefix or postfix.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channelstructure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data istransmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via thecommunication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via anetwork node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via airinterface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via thesidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communicationmay be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedlydefined resources and/or on resources negotiated between theparticipants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered thata network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuringresources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelinkcommunication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D)communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services)communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implementedin the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P(Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication maybe considered a user equipment or terminal.

A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more(e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical SidelinkControl CHannel, which may for example carry control information like anacknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical SidelinkShared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgementsignaling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel(or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/orfrequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellularcommunication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard.Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, inparticular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resourcelike a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participantstransmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or theremay be associated specific channels and/or resources to specificparticipants, so that for example only one participant transmits on aspecific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g.,in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers orsubcarriers.

A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, aspecific standard, e.g. a LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink mayutilize TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency DivisionDuplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/orpreconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A userequipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication ifit, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adaptedfor utilizing a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/orcarriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to aspecific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio AccessNetwork is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication.Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may berepresented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network nodeand/or communication with such a node.

Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmittingand/or receiving signaling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelinksignaling) may comprise utilizing the sidelink for communication(respectively, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmittingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receivingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g.,SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control informationtransmitted utilizing a sidelink.

Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radioconnection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellularcommunication network and/or network node and a terminal or on asidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one directionof transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate ofcarriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to ascarrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriersin a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). Insuch a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriersand/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate ofcarriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicatedcontrol carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred toas primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information maybe transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primarycarrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondarycarriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in someapproaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrierof an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and/orspecific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and endingsymbol in time, covering the interval therebetween. A scheduledtransmission may be a transmission scheduled and/or expected and/or forwhich resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, notevery scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, ascheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduleduplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, orother influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier beingoccupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timingsubstructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and/or covering only a part of atransmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structurelike a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in thetransmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.

Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the relatedinformation being defined for example in a standard, and/or beingavailable without specific configuration from a network or network node,e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured.Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to thecorresponding information being set/configured, e.g. by the network or anetwork node.

A configuration or schedule, like a mini-slot configuration and/orstructure configuration, may schedule transmissions, e.g. for thetime/transmissions it is valid, and/or transmissions may be scheduled byseparate signaling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRCsignaling and/or downlink control information signaling. Thetransmission/s scheduled may represent signaling to be transmitted bythe device for which it is scheduled, or signaling to be received by thedevice for which it is scheduled, depending on which side of acommunication the device is. It should be noted that downlink controlinformation or specifically DCI signaling may be considered physicallayer signaling, in contrast to higher layer signaling like MAC (MediumAccess Control) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the layerof signaling is, the less frequent/the more time/resource consuming itmay be considered, at least partially due to the information containedin such signaling having to be passed on through several layers, eachlayer requiring processing and handling.

A scheduled transmission, and/or transmission timing structure like amini-slot or slot, may pertain to a specific channel, in particular aphysical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, or aphysical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or maypertain to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. A correspondingconfiguration, e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration maypertain to such channel, cell and/or carrier aggregation. It may beconsidered that the scheduled transmission represents transmission on aphysical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, for example aphysical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared channel. Forsuch channels, semi-persistent configuring may be particularly suitable.

Generally, a configuration may be a configuration indicating timing,and/or be represented or configured with corresponding configurationdata. A configuration may be embedded in, and/or comprised in, a messageor configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/orschedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and/orsemi-statically.

A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an intervalin time for intended or scheduled or reserved for control signaling, inparticular downlink control signaling, and/or for a specific controlchannel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel like PDCCH. Theinterval may comprise, and/or consist of, a number of symbols in time,which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicatedsignaling (which may be single-cast, for example addressed to orintended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRC signaling, or on amulticast or broadcast channel. In general, the transmission timingstructure may comprise a control region covering a configurable numberof symbols. It may be considered that in general the border symbol isconfigured to be after the control region in time.

The duration of a symbol (symbol time length or interval) of thetransmission timing structure may generally be dependent on a numerologyand/or carrier, wherein the numerology and/or carrier may beconfigurable. The numerology may be the numerology to be used for thescheduled transmission.

Scheduling a device, or for a device, and/or related transmission orsignaling, may be considered comprising, or being a form of, configuringthe device with resources, and/or of indicating to the device resources,e.g. to use for communicating. Scheduling may in particular pertain to atransmission timing structure, or a substructure thereof (e.g., a slotor a mini-slot, which may be considered a substructure of a slot). Itmay be considered that a border symbol may be identified and/ordetermined in relation to the transmission timing structure even if fora substructure being scheduled, e.g. if an underlying timing grid isdefined based on the transmission timing structure. Signaling indicatingscheduling may comprise corresponding scheduling information and/or beconsidered to represent or contain configuration data indicating thescheduled transmission and/or comprising scheduling information. Suchconfiguration data or signaling may be considered a resourceconfiguration or scheduling configuration. It should be noted that sucha configuration (in particular as single message) in some cases may notbe complete without other configuration data, e.g. configured with othersignaling, e.g. higher layer signaling. In particular, the symbolconfiguration may be provided in addition to scheduling/resourceconfiguration to identify exactly which symbols are assigned to ascheduled transmission. A scheduling (or resource) configuration mayindicate transmission timing structure/s and/or resource amount (e.g.,in number of symbols or length in time) for a scheduled transmission.

A scheduled transmission may be transmission scheduled, e.g. by thenetwork or network node. Transmission may in this context may be uplink(UL) or downlink (DL) or sidelink (SL) transmission. A device, e.g. auser equipment, for which the scheduled transmission is scheduled, mayaccordingly be scheduled to receive (e.g., in DL or SL), or to transmit(e.g. in UL or SL) the scheduled transmission. Scheduling transmissionmay in particular be considered to comprise configuring a scheduleddevice with resource/s for this transmission, and/or informing thedevice that the transmission is intended and/or scheduled for someresources. A transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval, inparticular a successive number of symbols, which may form a continuousinterval in time between (and including) a starting symbol and an endingsymbol. The starting symbol and the ending symbol of a (e.g., scheduled)transmission may be within the same transmission timing structure, e.g.the same slot. However, in some cases, the ending symbol may be in alater transmission timing structure than the starting symbol, inparticular a structure following in time. To a scheduled transmission, aduration may be associated and/or indicated, e.g. in a number of symbolsor associated time intervals. In some variants, there may be differenttransmissions scheduled in the same transmission timing structure. Ascheduled transmission may be considered to be associated to a specificchannel, e.g. a shared channel like PUSCH or PDSCH.

In the context of this disclosure, there may be distinguished betweendynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmission and/or configuration,and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmission and/orconfiguration. The term “dynamic” or similar terms may generally pertainto configuration/transmission valid and/or scheduled and/or configuredfor (relatively) short timescales and/or a (e.g., predefined and/orconfigured and/or limited and/or definite) number of occurrences and/ortransmission timing structures, e.g. one or more transmission timingstructures like slots or slot aggregations, and/or for one or more(e.g., specific number) of transmission/occurrences. Dynamicconfiguration may be based on low-level signaling, e.g. controlsignaling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in theform of DCI or SCI. Periodic/semi-static may pertain to longertimescales, e.g. several slots and/or more than one frame, and/or anon-defined number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configurationcontradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodicor semi-static configuration may be based on, and/or be configured with,higher-layer signaling, in particular RCL layer signaling and/or RRCsignaling and/or MAC signaling.

A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols,and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively theirassociated time intervals). In the context of this disclosure, it shouldbe noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may beinterpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval ortime component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it isclear from the context that the frequency domain component also has tobe considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot,subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a substructure of aslot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and maybe considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their timedomain component. A transmission timing structure may generally comprisea plurality of symbols defining the time domain extension (e.g.,interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure,and arranged neighboring to each other in a numbered sequence. A timingstructure (which may also be considered or implemented assynchronization structure) may be defined by a succession of suchtransmission timing structures, which may for example define a timinggrid with symbols representing the smallest grid structures. Atransmission timing structure, and/or a border symbol or a scheduledtransmission may be determined or scheduled in relation to such a timinggrid. A transmission timing structure of reception may be thetransmission timing structure in which the scheduling control signalingis received, e.g. in relation to the timing grid. A transmission timingstructure may in particular be a slot or subframe or in some cases, amini-slot.

Feedback signaling may be considered a form or control signaling, e.g.uplink or sidelink control signaling, like UCI (Uplink ControlInformation) signaling or SCI (Sidelink Control Information) signaling.Feedback signaling may in particular comprise and/or representacknowledgement signaling and/or acknowledgement information and/ormeasurement reporting.

Acknowledgement information may comprise an indication of a specificvalue or state for an acknowledgement signaling process, e.g. ACK orNACK or DTX. Such an indication may for example represent a bit or bitvalue or bit pattern or an information switch. Different levels ofacknowledgement information, e.g. providing differentiated informationabout quality of reception and/or error position in received dataelement/s may be considered and/or represented by control signaling.Acknowledgment information may generally indicate acknowledgment ornon-acknowledgment or non-reception or different levels thereof, e.g.representing ACK or NACK or DTX. Acknowledgment information may pertainto one acknowledgement signaling process. Acknowledgement signaling maycomprise acknowledgement information pertaining to one or moreacknowledgement signaling processes, in particular one or more HARQ orARQ processes. It may be considered that to each acknowledgmentsignaling process the acknowledgement information pertains to, aspecific number of bits of the information size of the control signalingis assigned. Measurement reporting signaling may comprise measurementinformation.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signalsand/or messages. A signal may comprise and/or represent one or morebits, which may be modulated into a common modulated signal. Anindication may represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal,or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included inand/or represented by a message. Signaling, in particular controlsignaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, whichmay be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated todifferent acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/orpertaining to one or more such processes. An indication may comprisesignaling and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may becomprised therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/orbe associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g.representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes.

Signaling utilizing, and/or on and/or associated to, resources or aresource structure may be signaling covering the resources or structure,signaling on the associated frequency/ies and/or in the associated timeinterval/s. It may be considered that a signaling resource structurecomprises and/or encompasses one or more substructures, which may beassociated to one or more different channels and/or types of signalingand/or comprise one or more holes (resource element/s not scheduled fortransmissions or reception of transmissions). A resource substructure,e.g. a feedback resource structure, may generally be continuous in timeand/or frequency, within the associated intervals. It may be consideredthat a substructure, in particular a feedback resource structure,represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements intime/frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure orsubstructure, in particular a frequency resource range, may represent anon-continuous pattern of resources in one or more domains, e.g. timeand/or frequency. The resource elements of a substructure may bescheduled for associated signaling.

It should generally be noted that the number of bits or a bit rateassociated to specific signaling that can be carried on a resourceelement may be based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS). Thus, bitsor a bit rate may be seen as a form of resources representing a resourcestructure or range in frequency and/or time, e.g. depending on MCS. TheMCS may be configured or configurable, e.g. by control signaling, e.g.DCI or MAC (Medium Access Control) or RRC (Radio Resource Control)signaling.

Different formats of for control information may be considered, e.g.different formats for a control channel like a Physical Uplink ControlChannel (PUCCH). PUCCH may carry control information or correspondingcontrol signaling, e.g. Uplink Control Information (UCI). UCI maycomprise feedback signaling, and/or acknowledgement signaling like HARQfeedback (ACK/NACK), and/or measurement information signaling, e.g.comprising Channel Quality Information (CQI), and/or Scheduling Request(SR) signaling. One of the supported PUCCH formats may be short, and maye.g. occur at the end of a slot interval, and/or multiplexed and/orneighboring to PUSCH. Similar control information may be provided on asidelink, e.g. as Sidelink Control Information (SCI), in particular on a(physical) sidelink control channel, like a (P)SCCH.

A code block may be considered a subelement of a data element like atransport block, e.g., a transport block may comprise a one or aplurality of code blocks.

A scheduling assignment may be configured with control signaling, e.g.downlink control signaling or sidelink control signaling. Such controlssignaling may be considered to represent and/or comprise schedulingsignaling, which may indicate scheduling information. A schedulingassignment may be considered scheduling information indicatingscheduling of signaling/transmission of signaling, in particularpertaining to signaling received or to be received by the deviceconfigured with the scheduling assignment. It may be considered that ascheduling assignment may indicate data (e.g., data block or elementand/or channel and/or data stream) and/or an (associated)acknowledgement signaling process and/or resource/s on which the data(or, in some cases, reference signaling) is to be received and/orindicate resource/s for associated feedback signaling, and/or a feedbackresource range on which associated feedback signaling is to betransmitted. Transmission associated to an acknowledgement signalingprocess, and/or the associated resources or resource structure, may beconfigured and/or scheduled, for example by a scheduling assignment.Different scheduling assignments may be associated to differentacknowledgement signaling processes. A scheduling assignment may beconsidered an example of downlink control information or signaling, e.g.if transmitted by a network node and/or provided on downlink (orsidelink control information if transmitted using a sidelink and/or by auser equipment).

A scheduling grant (e.g., uplink grant) may represent control signaling(e.g., downlink control information/signaling). It may be consideredthat a scheduling grant configures the signaling resource range and/orresources for uplink (or sidelink) signaling, in particular uplinkcontrol signaling and/or feedback signaling, e.g. acknowledgementsignaling. Configuring the signaling resource range and/or resources maycomprise configuring or scheduling it for transmission by the configuredradio node. A scheduling grant may indicate a channel and/or possiblechannels to be used/usable for the feedback signaling, in particularwhether a shared channel like a PUSCH may be used/is to be used. Ascheduling grant may generally indicate uplink resource/s and/or anuplink channel and/or a format for control information pertaining toassociated scheduling assignments. Both grant and assignment/s may beconsidered (downlink or sidelink) control information, and/or beassociated to, and/or transmitted with, different messages.

A resource structure in frequency domain (which may be referred to asfrequency interval and/or range) may be represented by a subcarriergrouping. A subcarrier grouping may comprise one or more subcarriers,each of which may represent a specific frequency interval, and/orbandwidth. The bandwidth of a subcarrier, the length of the interval infrequency domain, may be determined by the subcarrier spacing and/ornumerology. The subcarriers may be arranged such that each subcarrierneighbors at least one other subcarrier of the grouping in frequencyspace (for grouping sizes larger than 1). The subcarriers of a groupingmay be associated to the same carrier, e.g. configurably or configuredof predefined. A physical resource block may be consideredrepresentative of a grouping (in frequency domain). A subcarriergrouping may be considered to be associated to a specific channel and/ortype of signaling, its transmission for such channel or signaling isscheduled and/or transmitted and/or intended and/or configured for atleast one, or a plurality, or all subcarriers in the grouping. Suchassociation may be time-dependent, e.g. configured or configurable orpredefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. The association may bedifferent for different devices, e.g. configured or configurable orpredefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. Patterns of subcarriergroupings may be considered, which may comprise one or more subcarriergroupings (which may be associated to same or differentsignalings/channels), and/or one or more groupings without associatedsignaling (e.g., as seen from a specific device). An example of apattern is a comb, for which between pairs of groupings associated tothe same signaling/channel there are arranged one or more groupingsassociated to one or more different channels and/or signaling types,and/or one or more groupings without associated channel/signaling).

Example types of signaling comprise signaling of a specificcommunication direction, in particular, uplink signaling, downlinksignaling, sidelink signaling, as well as reference signaling (e.g., SRSor CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling, and/orsignaling associated to a specific channel like PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH,PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation,specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions,processes and signaling steps) in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may bepracticed in other variants and variants that depart from these specificdetails.

For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in thecontext of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or NewRadio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this doesnot rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connectionwith additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such asthe Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). While describedvariants may pertain to certain Technical Specifications (TSs) of theThird Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), it will be appreciated thatthe present approaches, concepts and aspects could also be realized inconnection with different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services,functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using softwarefunctioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or generalpurpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variantsdescribed herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices,the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in aprogram product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry,e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, whereinthe memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products thatexecute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presentedherein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and itwill be apparent that various changes may be made in the form,constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof withoutdeparting from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein orwithout sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspectspresented herein can be varied in many ways.

Some Useful Abbreviations Comprise

Abbreviation Explanation ACK/NACK Acknowledgment/NegativeAcknowledgement ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest CAZAC Constant AmplitudeZero Cross Correlation CBG Code Block Group CDM Code Division MultiplexCM Cubic Metric CORESET Control channel Resource Set CQI Channel QualityInformation CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check CRS Common reference signal CSIChannel State Information CSI-RS Channel state information referencesignal DAI Downlink Assignment Indicator DCI Downlink ControlInformation DFT Discrete Fourier Transform DM(-)RS Demodulationreference signal(ing) FDM Frequency Division Multiplex HARQ HybridAutomatic Repeat Request IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform MBB MobileBroadband MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme MIMOMultiple-input-multiple-output MRC Maximum-ratio combining MRTMaximum-ratio transmission MU-MIMO Multiusermultiple-input-multiple-output OFDM/A Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplex/Multiple Access PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio PDCCHPhysical Downlink Control Channel PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared ChannelPRACH Physical Random Access CHannel PRB Physical Resource Block PUCCHPhysical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel(P)SCCH (Physical) Sidelink Control Channel (P)SSCH (Physical) SidelinkShared Channel RB Resource Block RNTI Radio Network Temporary IdentifierRRC Radio Resource Control SC-FDM/A Single Carrier Frequency DivisionMultiplex/Multiple Access SCI Sidelink Control Information SINRSignal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio SIR Signal-to-interference ratioSNR Signal-to-noise-ratio SR Scheduling Request SRS Sounding ReferenceSignal(ing) SVD Singular-value decomposition TDM Time Division MultiplexUCI Uplink Control Information UE User Equipment URLLC Ultra Low LatencyHigh Reliability Communication VL-MIMO Very-largemultiple-input-multiple-output ZF Zero Forcing

Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3G PP usage if applicable.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a user equipment in a NewRadio, NR, radio access network, the method comprising: receiving aDownlink Control Information (DCI) message scheduling an associateddownlink transmission; determining, based on at least one characteristicof the DCI message, whether the associated downlink transmission is oneof: a slot based transmission; and a non-slot-based transmission; andtransmitting acknowledgement signaling for the associated downlinktransmission based on a feedback configuration, the feedbackconfiguration being selected from a set of acknowledgementconfigurations, the set of acknowledgement configurations including afirst acknowledgement configuration associated with the slot-basedtransmission and a second acknowledgement configuration associated withthe non-slot-based transmission.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein acknowledgement signaling represents acknowledgementinformation, the acknowledgement information being structured based onthe feedback configuration.
 3. The method according to claim 1, whereinat least one of the acknowledgement configurations of the set ofacknowledgement configurations indicates a mapping of at least oneacknowledgment bit subpattern to at least one code block group.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein acknowledgment configurations ofthe set of acknowledgment configurations pertain to one of: a samebandwidth part; a carrier; and a carrier aggregation.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein at least one acknowledgement configurationof the set of acknowledgement configurations is configured with RadioResource Control layer signaling.
 6. A user equipment for a New Radio,NR, radio access network, the user equipment comprising processingcircuitry, the user equipment being configured to utilize the processingcircuitry to: receive a Downlink Control Information (DCI) messagescheduling an associated downlink transmission; determine, based on atleast one characteristic of the DCI message, whether the associateddownlink transmission is one of: a slot based transmission; and anon-slot-based transmission; and cause transmission of acknowledgementsignaling based on a feedback configuration, the feedback configurationbeing selected from a set of acknowledgement configurations, the set ofacknowledgement configurations including a first acknowledgementconfiguration associated with the slot-based transmission and a secondacknowledgement configuration associated with the non-slot-basedtransmission.
 7. The user equipment according to claim 6, whereinacknowledgement signaling represents acknowledgement information, theacknowledgement information being structured based on the feedbackconfiguration.
 8. The user equipment according to claim 6, wherein atleast one of the acknowledgement configurations of the set ofacknowledgement configurations indicates a mapping of at least oneacknowledgment bit subpattern to at least one code block group.
 9. Theuser equipment according to claim 6, wherein the acknowledgmentconfigurations of the set of acknowledgment configurations pertain toone of: a same bandwidth part; a carrier; and a carrier aggregation. 10.The user equipment according to claim 6, wherein at least oneacknowledgement configuration of the set of acknowledgementconfigurations is configured with Radio Resource Control layersignaling.
 11. A network node for a New Radio, NR, radio access network,the network node comprising processing circuitry and being configured toutilize the processing circuitry to: configure a user equipment with aset of acknowledgement configurations; cause transmission, to the userequipment, of a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message scheduling anassociated downlink transmission, the DCI message enabling the userequipment to determine, based on at least one characteristic of the DCImessage, whether the associated downlink transmission is one of: a slotbased transmission; and a non-slot-based transmission; and receive, fromthe user equipment, acknowledgment signaling for the associated downlinktransmission based on a feedback configuration, the feedbackconfiguration being selected from the set of acknowledgmentconfigurations, the set of acknowledgement configurations including afirst acknowledgement configuration associated with the slot-basedtransmission and a second acknowledgement configuration associated withthe non-slot-based transmission.
 12. The network node according to claim11, wherein acknowledgement signaling represents acknowledgementinformation, the acknowledgement information being structured based onthe feedback configuration.
 13. The network node according to claim 11,wherein at least one of the acknowledgement configurations of the set ofacknowledgement configurations indicates a mapping of at least oneacknowledgment bit subpattern to at least one code block group.
 14. Thenetwork node according to claim 11, wherein the acknowledgmentconfigurations of the set of acknowledgment configurations pertain toone of: a same bandwidth part; a carrier; and a carrier aggregation. 15.The network node according to claim 11, wherein at least oneacknowledgement configuration of the set of acknowledgementconfigurations is configured with Radio Resource Control layersignaling.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the first acknowledgementconfiguration configures the acknowledgement signaling to use codingblock group (CBG) based feedback, the second acknowledgmentconfiguration configuring the acknowledgement signaling to use transportblock based feedback.
 17. The user equipment of claim 6, wherein thefirst acknowledgement configuration configures the acknowledgementsignaling to use coding block group (CBG) based feedback, the secondacknowledgment configuration configuring the acknowledgement signalingto use transport block based feedback.
 18. The network node of claim 11,wherein the first acknowledgement configuration configures theacknowledgement signaling to use coding block group (CBG) basedfeedback, the second acknowledgment configuration configuring theacknowledgement signaling to use transport block based feedback.